India turned 60
Aug 15th, 2007 by Virendra
I read a report about one man who lives on the west coast of India. He sells snacks (read pakoras) on the local beach for living. He discounts the rate of his pakoras by one rupee on independence day to show his happiness. This despite knowing that no government will ever give him a medal as appreciation, Aaj-Tak will never interview him and he himself is not sure why he does it.
To me this summarises the achievement India has had in her last 60 years.
We are proud of what we are. India has way to go before it becomes what one would call a developed country. All of her economic boom is passing onto a small segment of her people. But we have survived the doom that was forecasted when India was an infant. India survived dozens of religion and languages, she survived the initial riots, she survived the extreme poverty and she survived (to a large extent) regionalism, all of which were supposed to be the cause of yet another country gone bust after colonial powers left.
But just see –
To all you intellectuals claiming Iraq is bound for division since three different ethnic groups reside there – try counting the number of ethnic groups in India.
To those dismissing democracy in African nations because of poverty – India happens to have more number of people below the poverty line than perhaps all such people in whole of Africa put together.
To those who believe a nation is based on a central religion or language – you may be right speaking of a European country, not India.
Our strong faith in democracy, our powerful yet non-interfering army and our sense of national pride have kept us going. We have kept moving forward when nobody expected us to. We should be proud of this. India is not perfect, but we still love her.
4 Comments on “India turned 60”
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Some people write just for the sake of writing and u r one of them….i hate blogs full of crap without any substantial facts…..no doubt these very blogs may be satisfying u as a writer but to be a writer who can touch the readers deep inside, you have galaxies to go…..especially in ur grammar…..and the negativism in all your blogs is just a big piece of shit….come on man life is not too bad as u see it…..
Thanks for the comments.
Would have preferred criticism with mellow tone but can’t stop anybody on web, can I?
Hi akashdeepgautam.blogspot.com (hate these blogs),
When addressing yourself, grammar would tell you to use a capital “I”.
Also, what you refer to as “ur” is actually spelt “your” and “u” is correctly spelt as “you”.
Unless, ofcourse, you use the kind of grammar that “touches the readers” in certain deep places …
txtspeak, is it called ?
That sure is pretty popular amongst the psuedo-intelligentsia and would-be cool teenagers!
If you really hate blogs so much, there’s something that you can always do – go look at something that’s more to “ur” taste.
Keep your IQ confidential – shut that blab-hole of yours.
I agree with your views.
I respect your sentiments.You may not be Agatha Christie but you are a visioner and a great observer.Plz keep writing.
I really like your point of view!